16.9.12

How to Make a Weed-free Brick Driveway (that Stays that way!)

Do you have an interlocking paver driveway? Then you understand my frustration. Do you have a brick patio? Then you can feel my pain. Weeds. The little SOBs are pervasive and persistent.

We were fortunate enough to buy a house with an interlocking brick driveway. A great feature for any home. But, often I would find myself envying neighbors with asphalt driveways. They weren't out there for hours on the weekend weeding their driveway. About once a year I'd get fed up with the weeds and sit on the driveway and weed until my hands throbbed. I'd feel satisfied with my hard work, until less than a week later the weeds returned with a vengeance. They wanted revenge.

So, as you can see so clearly in the Before shot above, I'd give up. The weed gangsters could loiter as they pleased in our driveway. We'd avert our eyes and mind our own business. We had coping strategies:

Ed would run the mower over the driveway when he did the lawn.

I'd park the van in such a way to hide the worst of them.

Four years ago, after we renovated, we needed to build a new walkway to our front door. It was then we discovered Polymeric Sand. I describe it as sand that glues itself together and makes no room for weeds to infiltrate. We used this product on our walkway and have had little to no problem with weeds. We needed to use this to take our driveway back from the weed mob.

You can find lots of instructions and advice for using polymeric sand on a brand new install of bricks. I could find nothing for how to change your sand over to polymeric. So we improvised. What follows is Ed's description of what we did and what we do differently if we had to do it again. (Which we won't because polymeric sand is da bomb.)

Our driveway, it was an eyesore.

We had full intentions of tearing it all up this summer, levelling the bed and relaying the bricks. We had blocked off some time for this. Summer rolled along. Time grew short and we started to realize that the time we had for it was likely not enough to get it all done.

Robin devised a plan whereby we remove the weeds and sand and re-lay new, polymeric sand without actually moving the bricks. Genius! But could it be done on time and without us dying of sunstroke?

OK, let's just have a good look at how bad the driveway/our maintenance of it was:

Here's where Robin had started edging with our lawn edger. You can see how far the lawn had crept in over the bricks:

Just Brutal. Here is what we did, in the order we did it. At the end, I have a suggested sequence that I would likely do if we had to try it again.

What we actually did:

1. Used an edging tool to find and cut the driveway edge. Pulled up the clumps of grass and tossed them in the composter.

2. Rented a 36" Sweepster for the day.

As a random aside, being able to transport a 36" Sweepster is reason #429 why mini-vans are wicked awesome.

We lowered the brush as low as it would go and swept back and forth, up and down over a dozen times each way. It was crazy hot and dry and it made the area very dusty, but it cleared most of the sand out of the accessible joints (see step 2 for what made a lot of the area inaccessible).

3. Hand weeded.We purchased what we initially thought was a crack weeder but discovered was actually a "garden knife" (you know, for dividing clumps of perennials and stuff). Never mind what it was called, it was perfect for getting weeds out from between bricks. We used, and broke three.

The Sweepster was a rock star at removing the existing sand/brick dust mixture, but wherever a weed had dug its roots in, there were issues. And you saw how many weeds there were, right?

Anyhow, we hack attacked the cracks for the better part of 4+ hours in the afternoon. We have no pictures of this, as we were worried that if either one of us stopped, we would never start again. It sucked. No, really, it did.

After shot of weeded and Sweepstered (sp?) driveway. It is tough to see, but most joints have 1"+ of sand removed.

4. ReSweepstered the weeded driveway to take care of all the last bits.

5. Polymeric Sand the Joints. I could give you the rundown, but Techniseal has this video that does it so much better and faster than I could. We didn't do the plate compaction part, mostly because we just topping up the existing joints and we didn't want to rent another big "thing" to add to the cost of this project.

Anyhow, that video is basically what we did, only substitute these tools and Permacon Polymeric for all the stuff you saw in the video.

I also used a shop-vac on blower setting in place of the leaf blower and silent swearing in place of helpful narration.

We guesstimated the number of bags to buy, based on square footage in our driveway, minus the fact that we were only topping up, plus the fact that most estimates are based on larger pavers (fewer joints per square foot) vs bricks.

We ended up buying 3 bags too many but are keeping them for future projects (and have already used one on a back walkway).

If you have never used Polymeric Sand, it is a wonderful product. On new construction, if you follow all the steps in the video, you are buying yourself 4-5 years of completely maintenance free patio/walkway. Even after that time frame, the weeding and upkeep are much less than regular sand, which means less time/ nasty sprays will have to be employed.

We cannot report on how long our driveway will go - but for now, here is how it looks:

Edge closest to the sidewalk

Final shot again in large size.

I didn't do as thorough a job as I should have when blowing, so some haze is evident in some areas. I have decided to call those spots, "extra traction zones" for winter. You can't argue the improvement in appearance, though.

We're very happy and total time was a little over 2 days versus the unrealistic week we thought we could tear the whole thing up and re-lay it in.

To do it again, I think we would:

Weed everything thoroughly first - we thought the sweepster would tackle the weeds better than it did.

Pressure wash the sand out of the joints. If that didn't work, then rent the Sweepster (more people likely own pressure washers than Sweepsters.)

Not cheap, but here's some perspective: Four years ago, after we did our walkway, our neighbour called around to see if she could get her sand driveway converted to polymeric sand. She was given a quote of $4,000! Her driveway is a similar size to ours.

So we figure we've saved ourselves thousands by doing two days of hard work.

Anyways, like I said, we're happy for now and our neighbours can make eye contact with us again.

Have you had any projects where you scaled them back and were still happy with the results? Any questions we can help you with?

Hello driveway ExpertMy brick driveway is lawn on one side and a stone retaining wall on the other. To compound the problem it is sloped down to the retaining wall. With time the rain run off pushes the bricks against the retaining wall , which subsequently buckles. Brick movement also widens the gaps between the bricks, etc etc. Any ideas?. Polymeric sand should help but suspect the effect would be short lived Terry

While far from an expert, I'll try my best to help with your question.

We're big fans of Polymeric sand for filling the small gaps and preventing weeds from creeping up. While it does act as a binding agent between the bricks, it sounds like what you are needing might be more than it can handle.

Your driveway may need a rebuild and leveling on the retaining wall side. When that is done, the polymeric sand would definitely help keep runoff from getting between the bricks and the water would shed away more completely, possibly keeping it in good shape for longer.

Sorry I'm not more help, but thanks for the question anyway. All the best with your brick driveway.

Just read this article after doing our driveway this weekend, the pressure washer works really well but a word of caution it makes a huge mess, I was covered in mud and got dirt everywhere make sure you use old clothes.

Oh Robin and Ed I am so happy to have found this post! We bought a house with bit only a brick driveway, but brick paving entertaining area (which is huge) and brick walk ways and pavers around the pool and back of the house. The job is going to be huge. (Luckily minimal weeds in the entertainment area section) But the rest is a nightmare to maintain.

We have been looking at this product to use, so glad I read your experience first so we get it right first time! It looks great. Hope it works just as well for us!

Thanks - we hope you still thank us after the job (or during - it can be messy, hateful work).

The Polymeric Sand has held up well - the best follow-up advice I can add is to try and get down as deep as possible in the grooves. The only spots we are currently fighting weeds are in areas that we didn't clean out as vigilantly as we could.

What about the combination of vinegar, salt, and detergent? I've used that a few times and it looks like it kills the weeds. Just don't know how permanent. You'd think for a good long while with the salt.

Just spent my morning crack attacking weeds and pressure washing away years of moss and buildup. Tomorrow I apply the polymeric sand but holy crow, what a difference already!! Thanks so much for your tutorial!!

We have a large patio with colonial style bricks that were put in with sand approx 10 years ago, and they are overtaken by weeds. Our landscaper wouldn't even quote us redoing the patio (including regrading away from the house) because he said at about $10k... you have much better things to do with that money! So I think once we're moved in completely and projects are lessening... we'll take this approach. Thanks!

One way to maximize the power of corded or battery-powered weed eaters is to use a smaller cutting diameter. The Black & Decker LST136W takes this approach, and it is a wise decision. you can find out more

Is this brick driveway still permeable? We put in one a few years ago precisely to have a permeable surface that continues to allow water to seep down instead of running off. Would that new sand prevent this?

I had the same problem and usef the same special sand. Sand colour not grey sand... Anyway i used a high pressure water cleaner to clean the weeds and dirt out. And used a flat edged shovel to move the breaks slightly further apart by digging in the gap between the stones and push back and forth a small gap to allow the special sand more space. It toke me 9 years of weeding before i got pissed off with it lol. Glad i did tho.

Thank you for this great information. You gave me the courage to fight these horrible weeds that are growing ferouciously allover my front driveways and paths. Now just waitting for the last snow storm to melt and I'm at it!

The most ideal approach to handle weeds in an outskirt is to hand weed. On the off chance that the dirt is free or there is a decent profundity of mulch on it, this may essentially mean hauling the weed tenderly out. Assuming, be that as it may, there is a probability of the weed severing and leaving its roots in the dirt, utilize a hand fork or trowel to relax the dirt first. http://www.mordocrosswords.com/2016/06/tackles-weeds.html

Wow, it look like your hard work paid of. Saved thousands, your results is gorgeous , and you can pat yourselves on your shoulders each time you look at your beautiful work. Thank you so much for sharing. Your driveway look like specialist did it. Niceeee!

The garden knife sounds like a good idea to get the stuff out from between the bricks, but I saw a tool some years back ... a pole with something like a thin nail in the end to do the digging out. Since I am a senior, I can't bend the way I used to. Any know whee I can get one of these beasties?

Are you still weed free? I think maybe the reason for suggesting the plate compactor would be the fact that it vibrates over the bricks and actually "rattles" the sand further down into the joints, thereby increasing the depth of the sand in the joint.Good job though!

I am glad I have come across this post! For future reference, a high pressure hose does a wonderful job removing both weeds and sand from between bricks in a driveway.... I had my husband spend hours a few weeks ago doing this as our bricks were discoloured and now the weeks and grass have gone crazy wild everywhere as we didn't resend straight away- opps! I'm off to find if we can buy that sand in Australia ☺

I’m impressed, I must say. Really rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding; the issue is something that not enough people are speaking intelligently about.

Omg, omg, omg!!! You can't even imagine how happy I am to have found your post!! Everything you said is exactly what I feel. Those damn pave stones are gonna have my skin before I turn 40!! Thanks so much, i am DEFINITELY doing this next week-end! Yaaaassssss!

outstanding description. Thanks a lot. One suggestion, albeit a bit costly, is to pre-spray with a weed killer, e.g., Roundup and wait a week or so. Getting the weeds out thereafter should be a breeze after the roots have died. As for the rainy periods post work, one can always use a water proof nylon / tarp.

Very good description of the work required Robin, pretty much the same as we did a couple of years ago. Unfortunately we weren't aware of the Polymeric sand - so we are now considering redoing it all again as the weeds are back with a vengeance.Further up the thread someone asked about re vibrating the sand into the joints. Not a practice I would recommend. With about an inch or less of sand removed between the joints the blocks still have over 60% of the original 'strengthening' between them. Applying vibration to the blocks, post refurbishment, presents a real risk of cracking the blocks - and that can be real frustrating.